Five Olympic-sized problems plaguing London

Five Olympic-sized problems plaguing London

LONDON – In 2001, British newspaper reporter Robert Philip briefly became a celebrity in Canada. While covering the world track and field championships in Edmonton, he drew a spotlight for saying locals were “touchingly — if bafflingly — proud” of their hometown, and that the city itself was “dubbed ‘Deadmonton’ for the paucity of its attractions by one member of the British team.”

Nine years later, the British newspaper The Guardian ran an unflattering story during the Vancouver Olympics under a headline: “Vancouver Games continue downhill slide from disaster to calamity.”

And so, here we are, in London.

In London, the security situation has already been called into question. The traffic is now a local fixation, as is the weather, beautiful and sunny this week, but with the potential to turn at a moment’s notice. A strike by border officials has recently been called off.

Related

“It’s hard to know just how well it will turn out,” U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney said, in a quote re-published in the Daily Telegraph on Thursday.

His best guess seemed to suggest: Not well.

Will London succeed? The Olympic Opening Ceremony is Friday, and while everything seems to be running smoothly so far, there are still hurdles to overcome. Here are five issues that are buzzing in London, and maybe a reason or two for Canadians to feel (a little) smug:

Security
Bored-looking military personnel have been working security lines at the main press centre, scanning the thousands of journalists as they report for work. Fatigues have been spotted across the city, probably because the United Kingdom has more military at the Olympics than it does in Afghanistan. (More than 18,000 are reportedly around town, compared with about half that in Afghanistan.)

Why so many? A government contractor failed to provide the number of security guards it promised to deliver. That realization led a member of British parliament to suggest the situation had become a “humiliating shambles.” But aside from the brief evacuation of a shopping mall near Olympic Park on Thursday — an evacuation reported to have been triggered by a fire alarm — all has been quiet and as peaceful as could be expected.

Labour
Immigration staff at Heathrow Airport, the English transportation hub, had been threatening to walk off the job on Thursday, the eve of the Opening Ceremony. That was averted with an announcement from the union on Wednesday, but it was only the latest in a series of labour-related issues around the Games.

Cleaners working in the London Underground, the city’s oft-maligned subway system, are planning to work-to-rule on Friday. Taxi drivers have also voiced displeasure at the reduction in lanes available for regular use around the city.

Traffic
Early Wednesday morning , regular London drivers lost access to more than 45 kilometres of roads, with officials setting lanes aside for Olympic use. Drivers caught using these lanes risk a fine of about $200. Olympic vehicles, many provided by a luxury car manufacturer, can be seen darting around the city.

On most mornings this week, however, the drive to Olympic Park has seemed to avoid the kind of snarl of which some in the local press had warned. Bloomberg News has reported many of the reserved lanes have actually remained open to regular traffic, and will still be open through the Games, depending on the heft of Olympic schedules in certain sections of the city.

Opening
It will start late, too late for many athletes, including those from Canada. While the gala — directed by Danny Boyle, of Trainspotting and Slumdog Millionaire fame — is tied to a 12:30 a.m.local curfew, athletes are not expected to begin their march into the stadium until almost 10 p.m. Canada is expected to be in the first wave, which chef de mission Mark Tewksbury said could still mean another half-hour of waiting.

“It’s very late for the athletes to march in at 10 p.m.,” Tewksbury said earlier this week. “Every athlete has the right to make the decision whether they want to march or not.”

Weather
It has been beautiful in London, with clear skies and temperatures climbing into the 30C-range. And even that has caused trouble, with some train stations unable to cope in the heat, triggering delays around the system. “The wire in these sections can expand and sag in high temperatures and, as a result, it is necessary to reduce speeds in order to avoid damaging the equipment and trains,” a spokesperson for the railway told the Daily Telegraph.

According to the local weather office, that could change, and just in time for the opening ceremony. According to the Met Office, London faces a “risk of heavy and perhaps thundery showers” on Friday — but only during the day, for now.